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This past week has been a weird one because I’m experiencing firsts and lasts as I’m preparing to leave. On Wednesday our house went to the New York State Museum in Albany. This was our first full house outing that wasn’t celebrating a birthday or a holiday. The museum was quite big and it’s exhibits spanned a lot of New York’s history. It went from Native American times all the way through to modern times–featuring exhibits on Sesame Street and the September 11th tragedy. While it makes sense that Sesame St. is modeled after brownstones in New York City, I was still surprised to see it there.
Izzard left afternoon work in the vegetable garden early on Wednesday to go milking and I thought Sid had gone with him. As Eddie, Ellie, Eme and I were collecting the tomatoes we’d harvested I saw that Sid hadn’t gone. So at the end of work I got to take pictures of the afternoon crew (which is lacking a few members due to vacations) and I.
On Thursday Pele and Paul took Froud and I out to Baba Louie’s in Hudson for a farewell lunch. It was the only time where Froud and I hung out with Pele and Paul in a social fashion and without interruptions (we’d had a couple of Monday morning coworker meetings but we could never get through one without interruption so we gave them up). For afternoon work the vegetable garden crew and a few members of the seed garden crew went to Thompson Finch to gather apples that had dropped when the Thompson Finch farmers harvested. They weren’t really meant for immediate consumption but for cooking/processing.
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Prior to lunch Friday I started processing the Black Krim tomatoes for making sauce later in the evening. I managed to wash, cut and salt the entire bucket before lunch started. Followign afternoon work the veggie garden crew had a small farewell for me with the two varieties of cantaloupe we are growing (Golden Gopher, Delicious 51). Thus far Delicious 51 has proven superior to Golden Gopher. After dinner I started the tomatoes stewing to cook off as much water as as possible before I got ready to make sauce. While the tomatoes were simmering I went down to the 2nd Annual Art Show put on by the summer painting class because even though the event was open to everyone, Eme had invited me to come. When I got back the tomatoes were ready to be pureed and made into tomato sauce. Miss Whatsit came over and helped, cleaning up after my mess and cutting the garlic and basil to add. Having Miss Whatsit was probably a tomato sauce saver because I’d completely forgotten to wash and sanitize the jars. I’d been expecting the process to take four hours or so, but because I’d been prepping and stewing and using the entire tomato the active sauce making part of the process probably took an hour and a half.
Yesterday was my day off but I had my well fare party for myself at the swim pond. I’m not much of a party person because I’m easily overwhelmed by and uncomfortable around to many other people. However I had a lot of fun yesterday. Hara was the first to show and she helped set up. Eme was the second to arrive and second-to-last to leave. Eme talked about two things: where Zak was and the fact that she didn’t need to go to cafe because she could get soda, sweets and chips at the party. I was surprised by the turn out, thirteen people in total– and with the exception of Eme the party guests came in two shifts.